I admit to being a little baffled and am unable to see what's going on here.

Tried to go into the game with as few spoilers as possible. Playing as a Nord with the intention of being a viking. Sharp blades, big bows, not much mucking with magic.

Well, I'd started going the heavy armor route until I noticed I have the negative number by bows I'm equipping. Someone mentioned a penalty for using heavy armor and archery/magic. Oh! So I equip with light armor now. Well, I'm looking at my bows and they have negative penalties by them. I check out other weapons and see even my hand weapons are negative.

There has to be something I'm missing here. What could it be?

I might be wrong here but I've always assumed that means it does less damage than the one you aready have equipped.

Alternatively go to your magic menu and look at your active effects to see if you have a disease affecting your abilities.

Red numbers mean they are worth less than what you have. If you have an armor that has an armor rating of 60, and you want to wear one of 55, you get a -5. At least that's what I think you are talking about...

Wait, where are you seeing this at? If you're seeing it when you highlight an item in your inventory between the terms "damage" and "carry weight" on the bottom of the screen, the number simply means how much more/less damage the currently highlighted weapon does compared to your currently equipped one.

Oh! That is it. Now I feel dumb.

And upon searching more I see there isn't an archery penalty for heavy armor? Is there anything definitive about that?